Last Week Tonight with John Oliver highlights astroturfing in main segment
Astroturfing is basically when companies do what they can to create activism around themselves, such as creating advertisements to encourage the government to not overly tax sodas and juice drinks. Or, companies hiring protestors or people to speak out on their cause. Crowds On Demand is a company that does help to facilitate much of this. They “engage” audiences by making it seem as though there is already support behind a cause when there may not actually be. There are often conspiracy theories around this, but sometimes, protestors are in fact paid.
Basically, the reason that astroturfers are able to get away with this sort of stuff is because there is no legal recourse to stop them. Nobody is regulating what they are doing and with that, they can basically say whatever they want without anyone really stopping them. It’s a dangerous game and one that can at times have very-real consequences.
As a whole, though, this was a fascinating segment mostly in that it shows you just how widespread the act of astroturfing is and how it can impact real causes. For example, if a company puts enough money behind a cause of their choosing, they can help to silence the people who are actually working to get some real thoughts out there into the world. They just don’t have the money and, at times, the resources in order to ensure that their voices are heard. This is what makes this so effective, but also so terrifying in an era where the people really should matter.
Related – Be sure to get some other news on tonight’s main segment
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